How often can a deity descend to the Earth and not take you by surprise? It
happens in the last third of Huck & Holden, Rajiv Joseph's new play at the
Cherry Lane Studio Theatre, when the Hindu goddess Kali smashes through a
bookcase to wreak havoc on the lives of three combating college students.

Clad all in black, wearing a necklace of baby's heads, and possessing four
arms (each of which seemingly has a sassy mind of its own), Kali's
ostensibly the only way that Indian student Navin, and recently split
African-American couple Michelle and Torry can resolve their differences.
"Kali changes everything," we're told - usually with bloodshed and a severed
head or two. But if they will indeed all be different when she vanishes,
her specific impact is minimal: They all began their metamorphoses long
before.

Those journeys, more than Kali's actual appearance, are the basis for
Joseph's roundly entertaining comedy about choices - and values - embraced
and discarded. Navin's story begins deceptively, as a collegiate, slapstick
coming-to-America tale about a young man just arrived from Calcutta, who's
as clueless about American literature as he is about sex. But as Navin
(Nick Choksi) begins exploring his newfound independence, and his burgeoning
feelings for the pretty young librarian Michelle (Cherise Boothe), the story
transforms into one of unexpected soul and depth.

For Navin is neither shallow nor easily misled - he's resolute in his belief
that his family's ways of rigidly planned adulthood and arranged marriages
will be the best for him. Though he grapples against increasingly
restrictive bonds for the entire play, giving up his ideals for what he
simply wants is not a choice he indiscriminately makes. This allows us to
better embrace his quandary, and makes his decision-making process (which
isn't completely resolved until the play's final seconds) the true, solid
core of the play.

There's a bit of lighthearted mysticism in the process - Navin is aided by
the memory of a popular Sikh school friend named Singh (Arjun Gupta), who
proved it was possible to live life in both his parents' world and his own,
as well as the words of Mark Twain and J.D. Salinger (whose characters give
the play its title). But Joseph doesn't overdo his literary allusions, and
lets Navin's story develop naturally - the Kama Sutra is discussed more
frequently than Huckleberry Finn or The Catcher in the Rye - so that Navin
will seem as conflicted, and thus as real, as possible.

Choksi nicely brings this to life, imbuing Navin with an energetic, witty
neuroticism that suggests a playful puppy trying to break free of a leash.
He's got great chemistry with Boothe, too, who's just as effective playing
the free-spirited Michelle. Gupta's suaveness makes his Singh the perfect
invisible inspiration for Navin. Only LeRoy McClain disappoints as
Michelle's boyfriend, Torry, but he's assigned the most overtly functional
character, who exists only to help Michelle and Navin get together and
contributes little else. He's also saddled with the show's most unfortunate
material, including a lengthy, embarrassing scene in which he gives Navin a
graphic sex lesson.

It's here and only here that the writing and Giovanna Sardelli's usually
sharp direction pander to the show's intended young-adult audience; Choksi
and McClain milk the scene for its full comic potential, but it nonetheless
feels out of place among the more mature ideas at play. And there are some
moments, especially in the early scenes, that feel unnecessarily labored.
But when Joseph hits - most notably when Navin fantasizes about first having
sex with his arranged bride, who looks and behaves exactly like Michelle -
he knocks scenes out of the park, capturing that complicated area between
elation and frustration that most people in their 20s seem to exclusively
inhabit.

And, of course, there's Kali, fancifully realized here as the embodiment of
chaos working to establish order, and dazzlingly portrayed by Nilaja Sun.
Her careful steps, strenuously stylized hand gestures, and
ugly-meets-beautiful dance to cover Navin and Torry's fisticuffs make her a
hilarious and horrifying joy to watch, and it's impossible to imagine Huck &
Holden without sun or Kali. The character, though, is ultimately an
embellishment: The characters' confusion and upheaval don't need to be
given physical form; Joseph has already delineated them, and their
resolution, beautifully in Navin and Michelle.

They, like the title characters, have outlooks on the world that outsiders
might not understand, but that won't be easily torn apart by the forces of
tradition, history, or even Kali. They're learning together how to abandon
some weaknesses for greater strength, and what a wonderful lesson that can
be.